Europe takes narrow lead after first day of World Champions Cup

The main lesson learned after the first day of PGA Tour Champions' World Champions Cup?

Things can change quickly. 

After the morning Six Ball session of the event, which is being held at The Concession Golf Club in Bradenton, Team Europe had earned 31.5 points and a 5-point lead over Team USA (26.5), with Team International in third (23). 

By the end of the afternoon session, things had tightened. Team Europe now (55.5) leads by a half-point over Team USA (55), with Team International still within striking distance (51.5). 

It was the type of action everyone expected within the World Champions Cup format. 

"It was quite an interesting day to try to get used to the format and the scoring and all that sort of stuff, but it was exciting in that we played hard," Team Europe captain Darren Clarke said. "We were all trying to win our points." 

Clarke and partner Colin Montgomerie earned 13 points in the morning Six Ball session, the most of any pairing. But in the afternoon Scotch Sixsome session, which requires partners to alternate shots after selecting the pair's best tee shot, Team Europe struggled. 

"Monty and I, this morning, sort of ham-and-egged it absolutely perfectly," Clarke said. "Monty hit some great shots. I hit some sort of sketchy ones, but then I hit a couple great ones as well. Monty struggled a little bit using my golf ball this afternoon because (there's) a little bit more spin on my golf ball than what he's used to, so I think we might change that for tomorrow. But he still hit some great shots and we did okay."

Team USA's Steve Stricker and Billy Andrade had strong play throughout the day, earning 10 points during Six Ball play — tied for the most of any pair in the session with Team USA's Justin Leonard and Jerry Kelly. Stricker and Andrade earned 9.5 points in the afternoon Scotch Sixsome. Asked if they went into the day with a specific strategy, the pair said no. They only wanted to play good golf alongside a friend. 

"It's kind of, do what's comfortable, make sure your partner's in a comfortable position and don't try to let him hang out there by himself," Stricker said. "I think (that) is a big thing, especially in best ball in the morning. If you can get two balls in the fairway, two 4-balls on the green, that's huge. We didn't do that a lot, but I think we played well together. We held each other up when we needed to and it was a good pairing." 

A full leaderboard can be found at the event's PGATour.com page. The event will resume Friday with Six Ball at 9:30 a.m. and Scotch Sixsome at 12:45 p.m.